The History Channel had some show on the other day about a set of Nostradamus drawings that were recently discovered, and as much as I like to pshaw at such things, they still freak me out. These guys were interpreting the drawings and talking about how 2012 is really going to be a problem with famines and giant energy waves coming from the center of the galaxy and a celestial eclipse with the Milky Way that has some disastrous portent, and Nostradamus predicting an eclipse so long that people will think the sun will never return, and the Mayans ending their calendar and the Hopis reporting the arrival of the "blue star" in that year, and it discomforts me. And then I read this.

I think maybe I'll store up some peanut butter and water in about 2011.

Report: Powerful Solar Storm Could Shut Down U.S. for Months
Thursday, January 08, 2009

By Robert Roy Britt

A new study from the National Academy of Sciences outlines grim possibilities on Earth for a worst-case scenario solar storm.

Damage to power grids and other communications systems could be catastrophic, the scientists conclude, with effects leading to a potential loss of governmental control of the situation.

The prediction is based in part on major solar storm in 1859 caused telegraph wires to short out in the United States and Europe, igniting widespread fires.

It was perhaps the worst in the past 200 years, according to the new study, and with the advent of modern power grids and satellites, much more is at risk.

"A contemporary repetition of the [1859] event would cause significantly more extensive (and possibly catastrophic) social and economic disruptions," the researchers conclude.

'Command and control might be lost'

When the sun is in the active phase of its 11-year cycle, it can unleash powerful magnetic storms that disable satellites, threaten astronaut safety, and even disrupt communication systems on Earth.

The worst storms can knock out power grids by inducing currents that melt transformers.

Modern power grids are so interconnected that a big space storm — the type expected to occur about once a century — could cause a cascade of failures that would sweep across the United States, cutting power to 130 million people or more in this country alone, the new report concludes.

Such widespread power outages, though expected to be a rare possibility, would affect other vital systems.

"Impacts would be felt on interdependent infrastructures with, for example, potable water distribution affected within several hours; perishable foods and medications lost in 12-24 hours; immediate or eventual loss of heating/air conditioning, sewage disposal, phone service, transportation, fuel resupply and so on," the report states.

Outages could take months to fix, the researchers say. Banks might close, and trade with other countries might halt.

"Emergency services would be strained, and command and control might be lost," write the researchers, led by Daniel Baker, director of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

"Whether it is terrestrial catastrophes or extreme space weather incidents, the results can be devastating to modern societies that depend in a myriad of ways on advanced technological systems," Baker said in a statement released with the report.

Stormy past

Solar storms have had significant effects in modern time:

— In 1989, the sun unleashed a tempest that knocked out power to all of Quebec, Canada.

— A remarkable 2003 rampage included 10 major solar flares over a two-week period, knocking out two Earth-orbiting satellites and crippling an instrument aboard a Mars orbiter.

"Obviously, the sun is Earth's life blood," said Richard Fisher, director of the Heliophysics division at NASA. "To mitigate possible public safety issues, it is vital that we better understand extreme space weather events caused by the sun's activity."

"Space weather can produce solar storm electromagnetic fields that induce extreme currents in wires, disrupting power lines, causing wide-spread blackouts and affecting communication cables that support the Internet," the report states. "Severe space weather also produces solar energetic particles and the dislocation of the Earth's radiation belts, which can damage satellites used for commercial communications, global positioning and weather forecasting."

Rush to prepare

The race is on for better forecasting abilities, as the next peak in solar activity is expected to come around 2012.

While the sun is in a lull now, activity can flare up at any moment, and severe space weather — how severe, nobody knows — will ramp up a year or two before the peak.

Some scientists expect the next peak to bring more severe events than other recent peaks.

"A catastrophic failure of commercial and government infrastructure in space and on the ground can be mitigated through raising public awareness, improving vulnerable infrastructure and developing advanced forecasting capabilities," the report states. "Without preventive actions or plans, the trend of increased dependency on modern space-weather sensitive assets could make society more vulnerable in the future."

The report was commissioned and funded by NASA. Experts from around the world in industry, government and academia participated. It was released this week.

JuicesFlowing

01-08-2009, 06:27 PM

That's sort of disturbing to think about.

Buck

01-08-2009, 06:32 PM

Shit, I dont even know what I'd do w/out the internet or a cell phone.

I'm guessing that Dogs and Cats would become the food of choice for many.

Bugeater

01-08-2009, 06:36 PM

Shit, I dont even know what I'd do w/out the internet or a cell phone.

I'm guessing that Dogs and Cats would become the food of choice for many.

And after that...people.

Dave Lane

01-08-2009, 06:43 PM

Wouldn't that be bugs? At least for you?

crazycoffey

01-08-2009, 06:44 PM

funny how he predicted the world would end 10 years ago, then they said it must have been 2000 and now it's "the calander was wrong, it's really 2012"

no one knows, no one will ever know until the end really happens, individually as well as universally.....

bowener

01-08-2009, 06:48 PM

I have watched shit on this since before it was the popular thing to fear.

Nostradamus can suck my nut, he's a loser.

Hopi indians are 'aight'.

Mother Shipton is a made up bitch.

Merlin is more than one man, and can eat my ass.

The Mayans are ****ing crazy and amazing.

The only one that astounds me is Edgar Cayce. He didn't spout vague bullshit, but instead gave extremely detailed explanations from the mundane everyday packing info for cargo shippers (which incidentally foretold of WW2 to the year, month, day), to genius detailing of how the Nile once flowed the opposite direction and into the Atlantic (was discovered in the late 90's via satellite that the Nile River basin did in fact run opposite and into the Atlantic)... keep in mind he was almost illiterate and only read the bible.

What he describes happening in the previous decade and through the next decade is what is supposed to go down on December 21, 2012. He just didn't say it as if it were to happen all at once on one day. Instead he layed out the early warning signs of a shifting magnetic pole and the moving of the tetonic plates (he described tetonic plates 30 years before they were discovered), which is increased severe weather and earquakes as well as a warming of the planet (our wobble has our NP aimed more at the sun).

Basically, if what is possible does happen, the poles reverse and the plates all slide along together (but not friendly-like) in a matter of years (possibly even weeks), we will see some pretty major ****ing crazy shit happen. Last time the Poles did this, 25,800~ years ago, Alaska was on the ****ing Equator since the North Pole shifted 90 degrees. That pretty ****ed up.

Besides the massive earthquakes everywhere, constantly, the seaboards would be devastaed as Tsunami after Tsunami massacre all things living near the oceans, and as the shift occurs in the plates, regions of the world will be displaced. If the North and South Poles end up sitting around the equator we are going to have a shit load of melted fresh water pouring into the oceans in a very short period of time. Earth will also have cold weather flora and fauna hanging out in tropical zones, and vise versa, which is going to be a major ****ing problem. Cayce said that the landscape of the UK will change in the twinkling of an eye, and become frigid. Sucks for them.

I'm moving to Alaska and taking some guns and lots of ammo with me. Also books, especially on what not to eat, and how to make alcohol.

Figures the EArth would go through one of its "phases" when the Chiefs are about to hire somebody who can make us good... ****.

Also, good chance that this might not be as dramatic, but it will cause changes none the less, such as warmer temps worldwide for a while.... then we plunge into an iceage (a real one though, with 3 mile high walls of ice the size of canada [if we dont move to a new climate zone])! Also, I am probably wrong on 99% of this, but this is CP and Pioli rumor day, I can make anything up I want to!

listopencil

01-08-2009, 06:51 PM

I've got a pallet of Soylent Green in my basement.

RealSNR

01-08-2009, 06:52 PM

I'm moving to Alaska and taking some guns and lots of ammo with me. Also books, especially on what not to eat, and how to make alcohol.
Maverick.

KCChiefsMan

01-08-2009, 07:16 PM

shotguns and rifles, stock up! you can loot the ammo at just about any farm

jjchieffan

01-08-2009, 07:21 PM

I can tell you when the world will end. It will be early in 2012. The week before the Superbowl. Kansas City will have just won the AFC championship game, but alas, will not get to play. We are Chiefs fans. This is our destiny.

Adept Havelock

01-08-2009, 08:31 PM

Chorus:
Black powder and alcohol
When the states and the cities fall.
When your back is against the wall,
Black powder and alcohol.

Gimme water, yeast, and veggie trash.
Leave it sittin' in a slurry mash.
When it's ready, put it in the still.
If you can't heat it then the sunlight will.
Draw the alcohol away, and then
Ya put the slurry back and start again.

Booze will clean your cuts or run your car.
You can make it anywhere you are.
Black powder in your cartridge shell
Will send the robbers runnin' clean to hell.
You can make 'em if you just know how,
So kids, remember what I'm tellin' you now.

-Leslie Fish

Fish

01-08-2009, 08:37 PM

Pack enough ammo to make it to the Twinkie Factory.............

Fishpicker

01-08-2009, 08:42 PM

Pack enough ammo to make it to the Twinkie Factory.............

and what to do when those 20 years have passed?

Scorp

01-08-2009, 08:44 PM

Scott Pioli will raise the glorious trophy on this day and save the world from armageddon!

KChiefs1

01-08-2009, 08:52 PM

The Earth will pass into a new realm of reality on December 22nd 2012.

Fish

01-08-2009, 08:55 PM

and what to do when those 20 years have passed?

Baby steps.......

Adept Havelock

01-08-2009, 09:01 PM

and what to do when those 20 years have passed?

We'll all be dead from mutant squid babies, IIRC.

RNR

01-08-2009, 09:06 PM

shotguns and rifles, stock up! you can loot the ammo at just about any farm

Right! try to rob the guys who have and have had guns their entire life. Great plan!

Frazod

01-08-2009, 09:06 PM

If the Mayans were so good at predicting things, why didn't they predict the arrival of the Spanish?

I'm calling bullshit.

Still waiting for the New Madrid quake predicted in the early 90s and all the computers to explode on Y2K.

RealSNR

01-08-2009, 09:12 PM

If the Mayans were so good at predicting things, why didn't they predict the arrival of the Spanish?

I'm calling bullshit.

Still waiting for the New Madrid quake predicted in the early 90s and all the computers to explode on Y2K.Yeah. There was supposed to be a polar shift similar to what they're describing on the History Channel in around March 2000 I think. It was one of those bullshit, "scientists say it MIGHT happen..."

RealSNR

01-08-2009, 09:13 PM

Also, since when does the History Channel do stuff about armegeddon-type situations? That's not history :shake:

Fish

01-08-2009, 09:17 PM

Also, since when does the History Channel do stuff about armegeddon-type situations? That's not history :shake:

They've been doing a lot of this type of programming lately. Even so far as the disclaimer at the beginning of the program saying the following is "theory" and very debatable, and the viewer should make up their own mind...

Rain Man

01-08-2009, 09:32 PM

I was going to mention that. I watched this show assuming that it was going to be pretty scientific and neutral, and instead it was talking about all this armageddon stuff while showing pictures of floods and famines and radioactive clouds. It was discomfitting.

Thinking about these sorts of things gets to me for some reason. I think about things like a giant wave of energy that we can't even detect coming at us at the speed of light, and one minute we're typing on Chiefsplanet and the next minute all of Planet Earth is writhing in agony with third-degree burns, and I feel like we're all just lucky by surviving from one minute to the next. There's stuff going on the universe where we're nothing but germs living on the lip of a giant Listerine bottle.

Iowanian

01-08-2009, 09:43 PM

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.

Load up on water treatment pills, firewood, dry beans, salt matches and ammo.

beavis

01-08-2009, 09:51 PM

This stuff is good for entertainment value.

I'm more afraid of the government than I am this actually happening.

bowener

01-08-2009, 09:52 PM

If the Mayans were so good at predicting things, why didn't they predict the arrival of the Spanish?

I'm calling bullshit.

Still waiting for the New Madrid quake predicted in the early 90s and all the computers to explode on Y2K.

Actually, they did... to the day.

They called him Kukulcan, who was a white bearded god from the East, that originally assisted them in setting up their civilization; Thought to be a survivor of Atlantis.

They also predicted that there was a massive black hole at the center of the Milkyway. Scientists just figured that out within the last 20 years.

The wonderful thing about this is, that if people actually read what scholars have translated, Mayans do not predict an end to the world at all, but rather a changing over to a new world, leaving behind the one that we know now. Perhaps we will be less materialistic and self-centered by nature and become more altruistic or something. Of course all the signs of today's societies point to us becoming more materialistic and self centered or an egoist style of thinking.

edit:

Also, do not forget that there calendar is actually far more accurate than the modern day calendar we use. Ancient cultures weren't stupid. They didn't center their lives around toys or entertainment. They had to work to survive and their religions were everything, entirely, so they spent countless years (centuries) mapping everything out and finding the patterns, of which there are many in nature.

Imagine what our scientists could discover if the Govt centered everything around NASA, and gave them $1 trillion a year in research funding. Last I knew, NASA got less than $500 million.

Frazod

01-08-2009, 09:56 PM

Actually, they did... to the day.

They called him Kukulcan, who was a white bearded god from the East, that originally assisted them in setting up their civilization; Thought to be a survivor of Atlantis.

But that was WRONG.

If I predict Fred's going to show up on Wednesday, and on Wednesday Bob shows up, I'm still wrong. Even if I get confused and call him Fred.

Rain Man

01-08-2009, 09:58 PM

Still waiting for the New Madrid quake predicted in the early 90s and all the computers to explode on Y2K.

Due to careful preparation, I survived both the New Madrid Quake and Y2K. I am invincible.

J Diddy

01-08-2009, 09:59 PM

Due to careful preparation, I survived both the New Madrid Quake and Y2K. I am invincible.

must have been the duct tape

Frazod

01-08-2009, 09:59 PM

Due to careful preparation, I survived both the New Madrid Quake and Y2K. I am invincible.

You're a loony.

Rain Man

01-08-2009, 09:59 PM

must have been the duct tape

Duct tape will be more valuable than gold in 2013.

Rain Man

01-08-2009, 10:01 PM

You're a loony.

The stuff I saw on Y2K will destroy a man's mind.

Frazod

01-08-2009, 10:01 PM

The stuff I saw on Y2K will destroy a man's mind.

You whiffed on the Holy Grail dialogue response. :p

unothadeal

01-08-2009, 10:02 PM

Duct tape will be more valuable than gold in 2013.

What would that make gold?

Iowanian

01-08-2009, 10:02 PM

If Walker Texas Ranger had been a Mayan instead of a Texan....The Spaniards would have gotten their ass kicked, and Texas would have inveted Taco Bell.

Rain Man

01-08-2009, 10:03 PM

You whiffed on the Holy Grail dialogue response. :p

Would you believe I've never seen that movie? I have no idea why.

Rain Man

01-08-2009, 10:04 PM

What would that make gold?

In 2013, gold will be thrown at competing tribes' heads.

Frazod

01-08-2009, 10:05 PM

Would you believe I've never seen that movie? I have no idea why.

:eek:

Turn in your geek card immediately.

bowener

01-08-2009, 10:13 PM

But that was WRONG.

If I predict Fred's going to show up on Wednesday, and on Wednesday Bob shows up, I'm still wrong. Even if I get confused and call him Fred.

Hmm, okay. So a civilization that had never actually seen a WHITE human being, predicts that on an exact day a WHITE Human formed God would arrive, then a WHITE being does appear coming from the East (as predicted) with a beard (as predicted) on the exact day that was predicted long before he ever arrived. Wow, it takes a lot to impress you I guess.

Cannibal

01-08-2009, 10:16 PM

If I knew this were true, I'd quit my job and live off of credit cards for the next 3 years. I'd also travel the globe off of those cards and loans.

bowener

01-08-2009, 10:18 PM

I dont actually think there Earth is going to end either.

It doesn't take a lot of studying to realize though that we are not the smartest group of humans to live in history, but possibly the most arrogant and ignorant... Romans may have us beat on arrogance.

Whether it points to something bad or not, we are in the middle of an extinction rate that has never been seen in human history (proven by the fossil records). There are several causes to this, but no ideas of how to stop it. If it gets bad enough, or one foundational organism goes extinct, there can be huge repercussions. Honey Bees are a great example, they are disappearing at an unimaginable rate due to disease, chemicals, and unknown factors.

It may not effect us in our life span, but I tend to think about those that will come after me, instead of just my life time, and things may be pretty shitty for them.

Frazod

01-08-2009, 10:23 PM

Hmm, okay. So a civilization that had never actually seen a WHITE human being, predicts that on an exact day a WHITE Human formed God would arrive, then a WHITE being does appear coming from the East (as predicted) with a beard (as predicted) on the exact day that was predicted long before he ever arrived. Wow, it takes a lot to impress you I guess.

Are you saying that the Spanish are descended from the Altantians and helped found Mayan civilization?